There are several web-based applications that allow you to create and distribute presentation documents, without the need of expensive software such as MS Office. Here is a helpful list to get you started.
Personally I use OpenOffice’s Impress. Prior to the upcoming 3.0 series, Impress was (in my opinion) OpenOffice’s weakest link. But OpenOffice.org 3.0 shows considerable progress in this area. You can now download Release Candidate 4 of this amazing and free suite of software, which is very stable in my experience. As far as impress is concerned,
I have been particularly impressed by the new dual screen mode for Impress, made available by the Sun Presenter Console extension. This allows your presentation screen (what other people see) to be different than the screen on your computer monitor (what you see). The computer monitor console lets you see your current slide, the next slide in the queue, notes, and other handy information (like how long you’ve been yammering). You can find more details about that here.
Related posts:
[...] Finally, OpenOffice Impress (the equivalent of PowerPoint) is now ready for prime time. With dedicated table creation and other new features, this component of the suite is finally competitive. There is also a new extension available that allows you to use Impress with two screens, one for them, the other with notes and other helps specifically for your. Read about that here. [...]